FEMA denied aid appeal in another case

Friday

Mar 7, 2014 at 10:42 PM

Chris Kaergard of the Journal Star

WASHINGTON — Tazewell County communities saw much the same treatment from state officials as did the southern Illinois town of Harrisburg when federal authorities declined requests in both cases to aid local governments after tornadoes tore through.

The latter community was hit with a Leap Day storm in 2012, but quickly found itself denied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency when the state requested money for the town to repair its battered infrastructure. An appeal was likewise rejected, citing per-capita damage numbers that take into account the population of the entire state rather than a narrower region.

That’s the same difficulty Washington, Pekin, East Peoria and other communities in nine counties faced after the Nov. 17, 2013, tornadoes, with FEMA’s denial of the appeal in that case coming Tuesday afternoon. By early Wednesday, Gov. Pat Quinn had announced a $45 million, multi-agency aid package from the state.

So, too, in Harrisburg.

“We got (aid) fairly quickly through the state after that” denial, Harrisburg Mayor Ron Crank said by phone Friday, then added, “As soon as (Quinn) found out that we were turned down, he got hold of the mayor (at the time) and said that he would make sure we got the money.”

That was a continuation of a promise made immediately after the storm that hit the town, much as it was in Washington when Quinn pledged unstinting effort to Mayor Gary Manier and the community at large.

“The governor came down and he said that he hadn’t forgotten southern Illinois and he would help us all he could,” Crank said of Quinn’s pledge to them.

That included money for a housing grant — similar funds are being made available now for affected communities in Tazewell and Woodford counties — being used to rebuild damaged or destroyed homes. That’s still underway in Harrisburg, with 10 new homes built and 31 rehabbed so far. Other funds came through to fix roads that saw damage.

Chris Kaergard can be reached at 686-3135 or ckaergard@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisKaergard.

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